Watch out!
We are posting two days worth today (separate posts). Today was our longest day so far, as well as the hottest. We did about 49 miles, and the predicted high was 95. Tomorrow will be about the same temperature, and about two miles longer. (Whew!)
Our morning started with a delicious breakfast served in the outdoor garden of the B&B. At that hour, it was still nice and cool, but you could already feel the humidity. We knew it was going to be a scorcher so we wanted to get going as soon as possible, so off we went back across the river and onto the trail.
Outdoor breakfast
Today the trail ran mostly through wooded areas, which is nice and shaded, but occasionally we would break out into open areas in the full sun. Each had its advantages. Under the trees, while it was shaded, it also had the intermittent danger of walnuts. There are lots of walnut trees along the trail and at this time of year lots have fallen on the trail. Newly fallen walnuts are bright green just like a tennis ball and nearly the same size, while older ones are dark brown. Both kinds blend in very well with the leaf litter in the dappled sunshine under the trees and those nuts are rock hard! One has to pay extra attention to avoid hitting them if possible. When riding in the open sunshine, it is much hotter but there are no crazy nuts around (well, except Mike) and the trail is also significantly smoother.
Another hazard we ran into on one section was an area where the dried cornfields had recently been harvested and lots of hunks of corn cobs were scattered along the trail. Can’t say we’ve run into walnuts or corncobs before!
We had a few wildlife sightings today. Tami saw a lizard run across the trail and also spotted a dead snake on the trail. Mike got hit by two butterflies (ouch!), and Tami had a ladybug hitch a ride on a brake cable for a while. And we saw SQUIRRELS! With big, bushy, golden tails! We had to shout SQUIRREL every time we saw one.
Shade was very welcome on the trail today
Farmer’s field with an odd crop – lots of parts of cars
Large rock at side of trail with various flood levels marked – here is from 1943
Old railroad bridge
Our first sag stop was right on the river in a beautiful setting. It was located in Portland, and since Tami was wearing her STP jersey, she really felt like that should be the end of the day’s riding. She consoled herself by having Cheetos for the third day in a row, perhaps not a good trend.
That was followed up with lunch only ten miles further down the road in Mokane, which is an extremely small town. There was a dive bar that served hamburgers and a little convenience store with deli sandwiches available. We opted for the sandwiches, which ran a whopping $3 each.
Lunch stop in the general store
Interesting decor in the general store
Our second sag stop was at a hostel right off the trail that is used by youth groups on rides. A very nice place donated by a local woman to support use of the trail. The best part was that it was air conditioned. By this time it was getting very hot. Very, very hot, and of course very, very humid.
Turner Katy Trail Shelter
Getting away from the heat inside (Tami REALLY wanted to take a nap)
We still had about 15 miles to go and the temperature kept rising. Our rest stops became more and more frequent and Mike appeared to be wilting. Mike was pouring water on his head for relief and Tami was dousing water on her eyes at every stop to wash away the salt. At one point we had our first dog come running out barking at us, but it was very half-hearted and he turned around halfway to us. Too darned hot even for him.
But at last we reached the point where we turned off the trail and had the final three miles to ride into Jefferson City, the capitol of Missouri. We passed more cornfields that ran right up to the edge of town. The route required climbing a strange multilevel square ramp structure to the bridge deck where we accessed an oddly bumpy and bouncy bike lane.
Jefferson City